Chiefs place No. 4 in USA Today power rankings

The Kansas City Chiefs begin their full training camp starting Friday when veterans finally report to St. Joseph, Missouri.

With the arrival of training camp comes an all new set of power rankings from USA Today. Nate Davis previously had the Chiefs ranked a No. 8 in his offseason power rankings. Now, with the 2019 season approaching, Davis has moved the Chiefs up to No. 4. The three teams ranked ahead of them are the Eagles, Chargers and Patriots.

Davis still has some questions about the Chiefs that he needs answered before rating them any higher. One of those questions has to do with the defense and the other with star QB Patrick Mahomes. Here is a look at what Davis had to say about the Chiefs:

“Defense should be better suited to new coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s philosophy and will benefit from arrival of multi-faceted DE Frank Clark. But secondary questions linger. K.C. caught a break with resolution of WR Tyreek Hill’s situation, but that doesn’t mean QB Patrick Mahomes can replicate off-the-charts MVP numbers.”

I understand the questions about the personnel in the secondary to an extent. There might not be any household names, but the Chiefs saw marked improvement in the later half of 2018. Specifically, that improvement occurred when Charvarius Ward was inserted into the starting lineup. They’ve added a handful of new corners into the fold including free agents Bashaud Breeland and Keith Reaser, as well as draft pick Rashad Fenton.

The safety group will have a different look this season as well with the addition of free agent Tyrann Mathieu, the return of Armani Watts and the addition of Juan Thornhill in the draft. There’s enough competition in both units that they should be able to field a better secondary than they did in 2018.

If you believe in the power of coaching, well there’s a belief that has improved in 2019 too.

As for Davis’ concern that Mahomes can’t replicate the numbers of his MVP season, this is something I’ve heard a lot. People are pointing to history, but it’s not like Mahomes hasn’t defied conventional NFL wisdom before. History tells us that a QB like Mahomes shouldn’t exist, so why should we point to history as the reason that he can’t replicate his 2018 season?

Email

Like this article?

Sign up for the Chiefs Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You'll now receive the top Chiefs Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.